Tourism and community celebrations in Malta

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the relationship between tourism and community celebrations. 1 This relationship is often presented as being of an uni-directional casual nature, with positive or negative effects depending on the observer's prejudices. Hence some argue that tourism boosts such ritual events, providing an audience and funds which expand their size. Others point to increasing disaffection with such rituals on the part of the 'locals', as the meaning of the event is irreparably altered in the process of turning it into a tourist commodity. On the basis of observations I made while conducting anthropological fieldwork in a Maltese village 2 which I will here call HalHarrub, I shall argue that both views are misleading insofar as they overlook the polysemic nature of ritual events and the manifold effects of tourism.